Well, this probably shouldn’t come as any real sort of surprise! Just weeks after we exclusively broke the news that Sir Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel will be titled Alien: Paradise Lost, Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 has been put on indefinite hold with the director moving on to other projects as Fox prioritises the Alien prequel which is set to be released in 2017.
The filmmaker took to his Twitter account late last night to say, “alien is kinda holding/ pending prometheus 2. So I shall be working on other things… as much as I love the xeno- and Lt ripley.” Two Alien movies coming out within a year or two of each other always seemed unlikely (after all, a prequel being followed by a release set five movies later is bound to confuse moviegoers), and this news seemingly confirms that it won’t happen…yet!
Should Alien: Paradise Lost prove to be a hit – yet another reason the studio are holding back on Alien 5 probably – then it could very well happen, but nowhere near as soon as expected.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Fox announced Blomkamp’s Alien 5 before Scott decided what was next for the Prometheus franchise and before Chappie bombed at the box office.
All of these factors will have no doubt factored into their decision to put the project on hold, though it’s hard not to be disappointed that we might not ever see this fifth instalment in the franchise come to fruition, especially after the director has spent years teasing us with very cool concept art and plot details. For now though, out Alien fix will come from Paradise Lost…
